


with the weird look in her eye

by Kaylin881



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Fluff, Gen, Mad Science, Octokittens - Freeform, Silly, other mechs are mentioned briefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:01:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23563477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaylin881/pseuds/Kaylin881
Summary: Raphaella and the Aurora hunt octokittens.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 49
Collections: Mechs Fic Exchange





	with the weird look in her eye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alienea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alienea/gifts).



> Title from the short fiction piece "[A Bedtime Story](https://themechanisms.com/fiction/ghost-in-the-machine/)".

The Aurora runs the nightly check of her systems as she prepares to go into night mode, making sure that every member of her crew is where they should be. Some of them would baulk at the suggestion, she knows, but they _are_ her crew, just as much as she is their ship. She holds them, carries them inside of herself through the black void of space, protects them and shelters them within her body. Of course they are hers.

Jonny D’Ville, First Mate, is pacing in his cabin. This is normal. Her statistical models suggest that he will do this for approximately another three hours before attempting sleep, and will wake again several times after that.

At irregular intervals, he shoots at the walls, seemingly at random. This, too, is normal. They’re more bullet holes than not at this point, but the Aurora doesn’t mind. Her First Mate shoots her a lot, and not only in his cabin, but he has never hit anything important that could not be easily repaired. According to the analysis she has been running for decades, the odds of that occurring by chance over such a long timescale are less than 5%. She has not asked him to stop. This, she has concluded from long observation, is how he shows affection: hurting without harm, the same way he kills the other crewmembers knowing that they will heal and live again.

Ashes O’Reilly, the ship’s Quartermaster, is making their own nightly check of the storage bays. All is well, and they turn, yawning, towards their bed. The Aurora watches them go, gently excising the footage of the yawn from her openly available records and storing it in a secure server, where only Aurora herself will be able to see it.

Gunpowder Tim, her Master-at-Arms, is in the armoury cleaning his guns. This is normal; past evidence suggests that he finds the activity soothing. The Aurora estimates a greater than 50% probability that he will fall asleep before completing his task. She locks the door so that it will only open from the inside, preventing the other Mechanisms from disturbing him. 

Drumbot Brian has already powered down for the night, and the Toy Soldier sits motionless by his side in its best imitation of “sleeping”. Again, the Aurora lingers only briefly on this sight, storing it with care in her memory banks. Nastya is asleep, curled up amid the warmth of a maintenance tunnel near Aurora’s core, lulled into slumber by the familiar hum of the engines. Ivy Alexandria is asleep in the library, slumped forward over her desk. Raphaella la Cognizi—

Raphaella la Cognizi, Science Officer, is creeping on silent feet down a corridor on the engineering levels. In one hand, she wields a large butterfly net, and in the other, she carries a mesh cage. Her wings flutter with nervous tension as she peers around a corner.

Following Raphaella’s sightlines with her sensors, the Aurora detects a trio of octokittens. They seem oblivious to the hidden observer, bumbling along without purpose or direction, but the natural motion of their playing leads them further down the corridor, away from the Science Officer and her net. Raphaella must notice the same thing. As the Aurora watches, she abandons caution and rushes out from her hiding place, net raised. Her wings beat, lending her extra speed.

The net falls.

The octokittens scatter, emitting high-pitched noises of distress. The creatures move with surprising speed when startled or hungry, as several of the Mechanisms have discovered the hard way. Raphaella swipes at one as it scurries away, but misses. She looks from one octokitten to the next, unsure which to follow, then takes off after the slowest. 

Raphaella pursues the fleeing octokitten for 4 minutes and 32 seconds. The Aurora has to switch cameras 76 times. Eventually, the creature skitters to a halt at the end of a blocked-off corridor. Eyes glittering with triumph, Raphaella creeps up behind it, poised to strike. She brings the net down with a cry—and the octokitten seems to flow out from under it, squeezing itself through a narrow gap in the panelling.

Raphaella curses at it for 9.2 seconds, then kicks the panelling. It doesn’t move.

The Aurora decides to intervene. Locating her nearest projector, she beams a message onto a wall in Raphaella’s line of sight.

_[Would you like assistance?]_

“Oh!” Raphaella blinks. “Sure.”

There’s a moment of awkwardness, as there often is when Aurora reveals herself to have been paying attention, but it passes and the Science Officer launches into an explanation of her goal. “I need to catch an octokitten from the latest generation so I can run some tests. I’ve been tracking their mutation rate to try and predict how they’ll develop, so we can stay ahead of any new surprises. But...” A sigh. “They seem to have developed an instinctive flight response,” she finishes wryly.

 _[I hope they do not develop a literal flight response_, _]_ the Aurora comments. _[That would be inconvenient.]_ The creatures seem to be everywhere inside her these days, multiplying with every decade and mutating almost as fast. By tracking their movements backwards through time, with the help of Ivy and Nastya, Aurora has traced their origin to a pregnant cat which snuck on board 162 years ago, while she was docked at a port on New Cairo. These days, they are hardly recognisable as their original species.

Raphaella shudders. “Yes, it would. Given how far they’ve mutated from regular cats, I don’t want to say it’s impossible. It’s not likely any time soon, though. I haven’t seen any sign that they’re even close to developing wings.”

The Aurora adjusts her probability matrices to incorporate this information. _[Thank you.]_

“You’re welcome. I’ll, uh...let you know if that changes.”

 _[And I will do the same if I notice it first. Now, what can I do for you?]_ The Aurora tries to imagine herself in a human body, trying to catch octokittens. To catch something, you need to...know where it is. _[Would it be helpful if I showed you the locations of all the octokittens I can find?]_

Raphaella nods, wings lifting in what the Aurora identifies as excitement. “Definitely!”

She had already begun the search, so it only takes a few moments for the Aurora to project a simplified map of herself on the wall, with green dots for octokittens. The Science Officer scrutinises it for a moment or two.

“Where are we on this map? I mean, where am I?”

 _[Here.]_ Aurora adds a red marker. _[I’m sorry, I forgot.]_

“Forgot what?” Raphaella asks, leaning forward to get a better look at the section she’s in. “Oh, can you zoom in on this area?”

 _[That you would need to know your location relative to the rest of the ship.]_ The area in question enlarges to fill the wall. _[I always know where I am relative to myself.]_

A distracted nod is the only acknowledgement. Raphaella is now fully engaged in studying the map, plotting out routes and chokepoints. After a few minutes, she straightens up with a determined look in her eye.

“If I set traps here, here, and here,” she says, pointing out the locations on the map, “could you channel the octokittens toward them by closing the doors here, here and...there?”

 _[I could, although they might still get loose.]_ The Aurora highlights a section of a corridor. _[The vents here are large enough for an octokitten to squeeze through.]_

“Hmm. Well, can you close them?”

The planning continues for some time, the two of them tossing ideas back and forth, poking holes in each other’s plans and looking for points of failure. It is more than the Aurora has talked to anyone but Nastya in the last decade. She finds it fascinating, to trade ideas back and forth with another person, hearing their thoughts and making her own logic understood in return. Several hours later, Jonny D’Ville and Gunpowder Tim have fallen asleep, both of them well within Aurora’s predictions for their behaviour, and everything is in place.

At a signal from Raphaella, Aurora slams the doors shut in front of a gaggle of octokittens. A millisecond later, she does the same to the vents in the corridor. Flashing lights and blaring alarms chase the startled octokittens down the hall, around a corner...and right into Raphaella’s waiting trap.

And just like that, it’s over. Three octokittens emit grating mews from within the mesh cage as Raphaella hauls it back to her lab. Trailing the edge of a wing along the wall, the Science Officer rambles to Aurora about the tests she has planned for them. 

The Aurora watches, and listens, and logs the footage in a folder labelled ‘Contentment’. Perhaps she should talk to her crew more often. 


End file.
